Senior staff Attorney Cecilia Candia, (left) and senior social worker Erin Maxwell at the offices of Legal Services for Children, in San Francisco, Ca. on Fri.. March 3, 2017. They represent a 14-year-old boy who fled extreme child abuse in Honduras and arrived in the Unites States with no one to take him in. He has since been locked up in Yolo County juvenile hall for almost a year. less

Senior staff Attorney Cecilia Candia, (left) and senior social worker Erin Maxwell at the offices of Legal Services for Children, in San Francisco, Ca. on Fri.. March 3, 2017. They represent a 14-year-old boy ... more

Senior staff Attorney Cecilia Candia at the offices of Legal Services for Children, in San Francisco, Ca. on Fri.. March 3, 2017. She represents a 14-year-old who fled extreme child abuse in Honduras and arrived in the Unites States with no one to take him in. He has since been locked up in Yolo County juvenile hall for almost a year. less

Senior staff Attorney Cecilia Candia at the offices of Legal Services for Children, in San Francisco, Ca. on Fri.. March 3, 2017. She represents a 14-year-old who fled extreme child abuse in Honduras and ... more

Senior social worker Erin Maxwell, (left) and senior staff Attorney Cecilia Candia at the offices of Legal Services for Children, in San Francisco, Ca. on Fri.. March 3, 2017. They stand next to a mural called "Unaccompanied Youth", 2016, created by three juveniles from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador who came to the United States by themselves. The two represent a 14-year-old boy who fled extreme child abuse in Honduras and arrived in the Unites States with no one to take him in. He has since been locked up in Yolo County juvenile hall for almost a year. less

Senior social worker Erin Maxwell, (left) and senior staff Attorney Cecilia Candia at the offices of Legal Services for Children, in San Francisco, Ca. on Fri.. March 3, 2017. They stand next to a mural called ... more

A 14-year-old Honduran refugee jailed for almost a year in a Northern California juvenile hall because he had no family to be released to was freed from the facility Monday and headed to a foster home, accompanied by a team of law school students and a stack of Spanish-language “Harry Potter” books.

The abrupt change in fate for the boy — who traveled alone to the U.S. from the Honduran capital of Tegucigalpa to flee severe domestic abuse — follows stepped-up attention by local and federal authorities in charge of his care and custody after his case was reported in The Chronicle.

The paper has protected the minor’s identity, naming him only by his initials, G.E. After a March 5 article on his extended jailing despite having committed no crime, local activists planned a vigil outside the gates of the Yolo County Juvenile Detention Facility where he was held, and U.S. Rep. John Garamendi, D-Walnut Grove (Sacramento County), began pressing for his release.

On Monday afternoon, the boy stepped out of the Woodland facility into the sunshine — headed for a therapeutic Spanish-speaking foster home, his San Francisco attorney said. He was welcomed with a meal of pollo asado and given a new wardrobe of clothes donated by a retired judge.

“I’m really, really happy for him,” immigration attorney Cecilia Candia said, while awaiting a call from the client she has fought for since April. “It happened really, really quickly.”

G.E. was first taken to the local child welfare office, a first step toward his move to a new family home.

Yolo County officials, who had earlier maintained they could not discuss the case due to confidentiality concerns, issued a press release Monday saying that after the newspaper story ran, officials acted “quickly and consistent with the value of ‘doing right by others.’”

“Yolo County recognizes the public’s interest in this matter and the concerns expressed for this child,” the release stated. The county now aims to “assuage those concerns by affirming that Yolo County has taken immediate, responsible steps.”

The boy’s release was made possible after the federal Office of Refugee Resettlement, which had custody of the teen, released him to local child welfare officials in Yolo County. The move delighted those who had been concerned about his deterioration while stuck in indefinite detention.

Reacting to the news, Dr. Eleanor Chung, of the San Francisco General Hospital’s department of pediatrics, said she is “relieved, encouraged and heartened” by G.E.’s release, adding “all the more reason to continue fighting for this unique population of children.”

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G.E. is among the more than 250,000 unaccompanied minors who have been apprehended at the south U.S. border in the last three years and taken into federal custody. But unlike many other such minors, G.E. had no family to join in the United States. Because he demonstrated self-harming behaviors and impulses to flee, he ended up in Yolo County’s juvenile hall.

The county has a roughly $2.8 million contract with the federal government to house up to 30 unaccompanied minors who are considered a danger to themselves or others.

G.E.’s trauma from his abuse and his trek to the U.S. was compounded by his lengthy detention, his advocates said, as he saw no hope for release and spent extended periods confined to a cell.

“I’m thrilled that G.E. did not have to spend his one-year anniversary in this country locked up. He deserves love and healing and the opportunity to be part of a family,” said state foster care ombudsman Rochelle Trochtenberg of the California Department of Social Services.

Trochtenberg, Legal Services for Children in San Francisco and the UC Davis immigration law clinic all advocated for the boy’s release. “I feel like he finally got a little justice,” she said.

“I am very relieved that the Department of Homeland Security is doing the right thing not only for G.E. but for other minors,” Chung said. “For this young gentleman,” she added, “by keeping him in detention it just worsens the situation.”